Pastoral Message: “My Ecumenical Whereabouts Later This Week” Week of the Last Sunday after Epiphany. Feb 22, 2023
Pastoral Message:
“My Ecumenical Whereabouts Later This Week”
Week of the Last Sunday after Epiphany
February 22, 2023
Dear People of God at Faith-La Fe!
Here’s a basic principle of faithful and responsible church membership: each member of a congregation is expected to volunteer in support of some aspect of congregational life and ministry beyond their regular Sunday attendance. If you don’t currently have such commitments beyond attending Sunday worship, I strongly encourage you to consider and to discern what such involvements might entail. And I invite conversation with you about that. Of course, so many of you are already wearing many hats when it comes to volunteering for things at Faith-La Fe! But there are others who could step up to the plate to do more – for many hands make for lighter work!
When it comes to pastors, they in a parallel fashion to rank and file lay members, are expected to participate in the life of the wider church beyond their usual congregational responsibilities. Such involvement in the wider church is how we pastors engage in our own version of volunteerism. Throughout my ordained life, I have always taken very seriously my commitments to the wider church as a pastor, and have sought out and been sought out for many such involvements.
With this in mind, I want to share with you something about my whereabouts later this week. Since 2012, I have served as the Lutheran co-chair of our national Lutheran-Methodist Full Communion Coordinating Committee. This is my single remaining churchwide involvement. Each of our half dozen full communion relationships has a coordinating committee to monitor and oversee how it is that we are living into our full communion relationships with our partner churches. I have had the privilege for these many years of helping to oversee how ELCA Lutherans relate to the United Methodist Church, and how we are implementing our full communion relationship. It’s been a great joy to get to know more deeply leaders in the United Methodist Church and to be immersed in the rich spiritual traditions of Methodism.
Each of our full communion relationships – with the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Church of Christ, the Reformed Church in America, the Moravian Church, the Episcopal Church, and the United Methodist Church – is an ecumenical milestone in giving concrete expression to the greater visible unity of Christ’s Church. The ELCA currently has more full communion relationships with other churches than other mainline denominations in the United States. These ecumenical commitments bring great joy and satisfaction to me in ministry. Thus, I thank you for your generosity in giving me the time and energy to devote to these involvements beyond our congregation. I am glad that Faith-La Fe is a churchly community that long has had an appreciation for the wider church beyond the local congregation.
In service to my ecumenical commitments, I will fly from Phoenix on Thursday morning to Atlanta, where I will co-convene an in-person meeting of our ELCA-United Methodist Full Communion Coordinating Committee, the first such in person meeting of our group since the beginning of the pandemic. God willing (the weather looks dicey for much of the country this week…), I will return to Phoenix this coming Saturday the 25th in time for my usual responsibilities at Faith-La Fe on Sunday morning. Should travel become problematic, I have an excellent colleague in Pastor Veronica who is ready, willing, and able to come forward to take responsibility for both liturgies this coming Sunday. In short, I invite your prayers for a productive gathering later this week among Lutheran and Methodist siblings in Christ.
So, that’s a word concerning my involvements with national expressions of our church. Which leads me now to let you know about what may emerge as roles for me as a pastor in the Grand Canyon Synod. In addition to national involvements, I have always throughout my career shared in the life of local synods in many and various ways. What my particular roles in the Grand Canyon Synod will be remains to be seen. Having learned from previous experiences when I’ve tended to jump in head first with a lot of synodical involvements, finally, late in my career, I have learned to take my time and to not rush into new commitments.
Which is to say, I have not established as yet any particular role with the Grand Canyon Synod beyond regular, generally weekly, participation in Zoom meetings of the pastors of our Capital Conference and regular participation in other synod events, such as conference meetings and gatherings of clergy with our bishop.
That said, I am in the process of discerning possible initiatives in the Grand Canyon Synod. While specifics are not yet in place, I suspect that a natural place for me to involve myself will be in the area of the spiritual care of other pastors, deacons, and synodical leaders. Spiritual direction and leadership of retreats and other occasions of spiritual refreshment would be a natural for me. To that end, the half dozen or so quiet days that we have begun to schedule during 2023 will serve that end, as we wish to invite participants from our wider synod to these occasions and not just members of Faith-La Fe. I see our quiet days as both an evangelism initiative and a way of being of service to our whole synod.
Another area of likely synodical participation would be in the area of ecumenism, locally or regionally expressed, and not just nationally-focused. As you already know, I am a committed ecumenist and such opportunities locally would also be a natural for me given who I am as a pastor. We shall see what concretely unfolds in coming months and years.
With this, I offer to you a bigger picture of how I am and will be spending time and energies beyond the particularities of our life here at Faith-La Fe. Again, thank you for your expectation that I should have such involvements as your pastor. And as I seek to model aspects of the Christian life, again, I invite your consideration of your role as a volunteer in our congregation, particularly if you don’t currently have many such involvements beyond attending Sunday worship. I’d love to be in conversation with you about where your gifts and passions might best be deployed in our life together in Christ.
With prayer for your discernment and consideration of your roles at Faith-La Fe,
Pastor Jonathan Linman
Pastor’s Office Phone Number: 602-265-5860
Email: pastor@faithalive.com
Announcements
Interested in Membership at Faith-La Fe?
If you or anyone you know is curious about learning more about Faith-La Fe Church toward perhaps becoming a member of our congregation, kindly reach out to either Pastor Linman or Pastor Veronica. They are more than eager to engage you in conversation for your discernment. We are planning to receive new members at our Easter Vigil this year on Saturday evening, April 8 at 7:00 pm.
Invitation to a Special Lenten Discipline: Campus-wide Property Inventory
Pastor Linman is interested in convening a small group of interested members to make an inventory of items located in rooms and closets throughout the buildings on our property in the service of assessing and discerning what we may be called to keep and what we may want to free ourselves of for other homes. Consider this an effort toward some major spring cleaning. Better yet, let’s claim this as a communal Lenten discipline for this year! For this proposed work is also a spiritual exercise in that we are always invited to examine our places of abode – at home and at church – and to consider what we might be purged of for greater simplicity and purity of life. Some of our spaces are cluttered with things we may not ever use again. Being free of clutter in our homes and church makes for good mental and spiritual health – and it makes our spaces more hospitable and inviting to our guests and others who use our building. If you are interested in being part of the small team which explores our buildings and rooms making a list of things we may no longer need, please make yourself known to Pastor Linman.
Ash Wednesday at Faith-La Fe
There is ample opportunity for you to begin your Lenten devotion on Ash Wednesday, February 22:
Noon – Service of the Word with Imposition of Ashes
5:30 pm – Holy Communion with Imposition of Ashes (in English)
7:00 pm – Holy Communion with Imposition of Ashes (in Spanish)
Please note that there will not be morning and evening bible study on Ash Wednesday.
Lent 2023 at Faith-La Fe
Join us each Wednesday evening during Lent for a soup supper beginning at 6:30 in the parish hall, and followed by evening prayer in the chapel at 7:15. Evening Prayer will be led by lay persons, and the message will be offered by various neighboring pastors of congregations in the Capital Conference of the Grand Canyon Synod. As a feature of evening prayer, we’ll commemorate holy ones and saints on our calendar of commemorations. And the overarching title for the offerings of our local pastors is: “Pardon Our Dust: Finding God in the Mess of Change.” Here’s a description of what we pastors will be up to in our messages during Lent:
You’ve seen the signs, the bulldozers, the temporary fencing; perhaps you’ve driven by a construction site and asked, "I wonder what’s going in there?” or “I wonder how long this road will be like this?” The fact is, change is often messy and bewildering, even if it’s ultimately for the good. And when our lives are the construction site—when loss or transition force us to rebuild our sense of self, or when new challenges fill the road before us with unknowns—the mess of change can cause us to wonder how God is with us. This Lent, we invite you to join us as we prayerfully engage the experience of change, together with Biblical companions who found God anew while facing into the unknown. A “round-robin” pastor exchange with other Capital Conference churches will allow us to hear from different voices each week while gathering in our home church setting. Come and share the journey!
Please know that we need volunteers to sign up to provide bread and soup for the Wednesdays in Lent. Look for sign-up sheets on the bulletin board in the breezeway outdoors.
March 1 + Midweek Soup Supper and Lenten Service
(George Herbert, Hymnwriter, 1633)
Speaker: Pastor Karn Carroll from Our Saviours
March 8 + Midweek Soup Supper and Lenten Service
(Perpetua and Felicity and Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 202, transferred)
Speaker: Pastor Kristen Rice from All Saints
March 15 + Midweek Soup Supper and Lenten Service
(Patrick, Bishop, Missionary to Ireland, 461, transferred)
Speakers: Pastor Phil Gustafson from Grace
March 22 + Midweek Soup Supper and Lenten Service
(Jonathan Edwards, Teacher, Missionary to American Indians, 1758)
Speaker: Pastor Kari Williamson from Saint Andrew
March 29 + Midweek Soup Supper and Lenten Service
(Hans Nielson Hauge, Renewer of the Church, 1824)
Speakers: Pastors Veronica Alvarez and Jonathan Linman in a dialogue sermon
Holy Week and Easter at Faith-La Fe
Here is our schedule for Holy Week and Easter 2023:
April 2 at 9:00 and 11:00 am + Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday
April 6 at 7:00 pm + Maundy Thursday, Bi-lingual, Holy Communion, Foot Washing, Stripping of the Altar
April 7 + Good Friday: Noon, Stations of the Cross in English, 6:00 pm, Stations of the Cross in Spanish, and 7:30 pm, Liturgy in English
April 8 at 7:00 + Vigil of Easter with Reception of New Members
April 9 at 9:00 and 11:00 am + Resurrection of Our Lord/Easter Day
Mark Your Calendars Now for Upcoming Special Worship Services
Further detail about the following special occasions for worship is forthcoming, but please note these special liturgies now in your calendars!
March 25 at 10:00 am + Annunciation of Our Lord, Holy Communion
May 18 at 7:00 pm + Ascension of Our Lord, Holy Communion
May 28 at 9:00 and 11:00 am + Day of Pentecost
May 31 at 7:00 pm + Visit of Mary to Elizabeth, Holy Communion
July 22 at 10:00 am + Mary Magdalene, Apostle, Morning Prayer
August 15 at 7:00 pm + Mary, Mother of Our Lord, Holy Communion
September 14 at 7:00 pm + Holy Cross Day, Evensong
November 1 at 7:00 pm + All Saints’ Day, Holy Communion
Upcoming Saturday Quiet Days at Faith-La Fe in 2023
Saturday, March 18 – a day to explore the intersections between Christian Spirituality and our health, holistically understood. We’ll consider health and wholeness biblically, engaging in some conversational bible study. There will also be time for some gentle, healthy, spiritually-focused exercises (prayer that uses our body), a healthy lunch, and then also a Service of the Word for Healing with laying on of hands and anointing with oil. Claim this day as part of your Lenten discipline.
Saturday, April 29 – an introduction to Lectio Divina, or sacred reading, an approach to prayerfully engaging scripture that emerges from the Benedictine tradition and is increasingly popular today among clergy and lay audiences. I’ve done extensive work on the experiential dynamics of lectio divina, and I’m eager to share insights for your inspiration and edification. We do a modified form of lectio divina during our Wednesday bible studies, but spending the day together will give us occasion to do this prayerful form of bible reading as it is more fully intended.
Saturday, June 3 – a day to more deeply explore the spirituality of preaching, with special focus on how sermons are occasions of spiritual guidance. We’ll also spend some more time on your role as listeners to sermons, and how you can get still more out of preaching for your spiritual edification. We will touch on listening to sermons at next Sunday’s adult forum, but focusing on this topic for a whole Saturday will give us occasion to go still more deeply into the topic. On this day, we’ll also learn some of what Luther had to say about preaching!
Saturday, September 30 – on this day, close to the commemoration of St. Francis of Assisi, we will explore Franciscan Spirituality and what it might mean for Lutherans in ministry and mission in the 21st Century.
Saturday, October 28 – as we approach Reformation Sunday, this will be a day devoted to revealing key features of specifically Lutheran Spirituality, or Christian spirituality with Lutheran accents. We will discover that there’s a lot to draw from in our own tradition to take us ever more deeply into the spiritual life.
Saturday, November 18 – this day will be devoted to spending our time together in our beautiful nave doing “Stations of Our Stained Glass Windows,” a series of visual meditations on our stained-glass windows and the miracles and parables of Jesus they depict. We’ll explore in conversation the bible stories the windows are based on, and then look carefully at the windows to see features of the story which the stained-glass art highlights. Each station will feature a hymn before we move on to the next window.